Ever had the joy of an interior design company coming and planning some home improvement for you? Noticed the way they bring along a laptop laden with some clever program that churns out a design you don't want at a price you can't afford? Well, here's where you can join in the fun. With Punch Professional Home Design Platinum, the tools are at your disposal to plan and virtually build your ideal abode, without being sold a few taps at the same time.

Still, nobody said that planning your own home was easy, and this piece of software proves that. You start with a blank screen, a host of options to pick from and not a hint of a tutorial to set you on your way. It doesn't take long to pick up the basics, though, nor does much time have to tick by before you realize that this is a very powerful program indeed.

The tools included within it really can take you from an empty piece of ground to a fully designed dream abode. From the initial drafting, through electrics, walls, furniture and fences. It's got the obligatory - and useful - 3D view options, and even a reckoner to give you a price for your idea.

But it takes an awful lot of hard work to get there. That's not the fault of the program however; more the way it's being sold. Arriving in a package with a smiling happy family on the front (albeit consigned to the bottom right-hand corner), we were left with the impression that this would be quite an accessible and enjoyable tool to use.

It's not, and the clue really is in the name. Put succinctly, if you've no experience of home design thus far, don't bother. The software expects you to know what you're doing, because it's certainly not going to tell you if you don't.

Which really makes it something of an oddity to assess. For £50, you're clearly getting a very powerful and sophisticated package, at a far more accessible price than you'd traditionally expect. The detail is staggering; from broad utilities to help you place individual windows through to plotting the plants in your garden by name, few proverbial stones have been left unturned.

And yet the whole presentation of it excludes the casual buyer who may be tempted to plump for a £50 home design utility. The manual is horrendously brief, given the depth of the software, and that casual buyer would be hard pressed to get any kind of workable plan out of it, especially when the higher CAD stuff kicks in. It's quality software, but don't be fooled by the box.

Verdict
This is a tremendously powerful package, which few novices will be able to use properly, we'd wager. If you understand design programs then you'll probably be able to produce a masterpiece, but don't expect any hand-holding along the way.

Company: Punch

Contact: 01923 495496

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